Ross Stretton

Ross Stretton (6 June 1952 – 16 June 2005) was an Australian ballet dancer and artistic director. As a dancer, he performed with the Australian Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. He was later Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet (1997–2001) and the Royal Ballet (2001–2002).

Ross Stretton was born in Canberra in 1952. He started his dancing career as a tap dancer, winning the Australian national tap-dancing championships twice and winning numerous other awards. At the age of 11, he won a Channel Seven Junior Talent Quest, with a judge comparing him to Fred Astaire. In his pre-teenage years, he studied dance with Katrina Druzins, in a small studio at her home in Yarralumla – when dance for young males, particularly in Canberra in the 'sixties, was regarded with curiosity, even suspicion. Druzins, who was a postwar Eastern European emigree to Australia, and who specialised in teaching ballet with a fine degree of discipline, eased Stretton into that form of dance. Stretton, who sacrificed his scholastic studies for his art, did not, however, start studying and performing ballet exclusively until he was 17, when he began taking classes with Bryan Lawrence and Janet Karin, former principals of the Australian Ballet.

He successfully auditioned for a position at the Australian Ballet School in 1971. In his first year, he won the Nureyev bursary and received a Harold Holt Memorial Scholarship in his second year. He graduated from the Ballet School in 1972 with honours in all of his practical and danced the leading male role as the prince in the School's production of Cinderella.

Stretton joined the Australian Ballet in 1973 and became a soloist the following year. After winning a Robert Helpmann Scholarship in 1975, he undertook a study trip to the US. During his time at the Australian Ballet, he danced all the classical roles in the company's schedule. In the 1977 production of Swan Lake, he developed a strong partnership with Michaela Kirkaldie although he had to be taken to hospital after miscalculating the spectacular leap into the lake in a performance at the Canberra Theatre and missing the mattress behind the scenes meant to break his fall. In 1978, he became a principal dancer with the Australian ballet.

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